Mastodawn

Did you know people were using capital letters to shout in print as far back as 1856?

This week, I talked with Mastodon's very own technology historian, @glennf, who traced the history of "shouty caps" through centuries of newspapers, old Usenet posts, and even German dialect jokes.

There's also fascinating stuff about typesetters and costs. Check it out!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/ygyknQ3IDUo?si=FxyNRgCHEsO-uzus
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1161/transcript
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229

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MacBalance Feb 22

@grammargirl @glennf Do you know if there’s any truth to the anecdote that earlynteletype services were all-caps because research was done that lower case was more legible but someone in charge felt that God required an upper case ‘G’?

I’ve heard this before, but willing to admit it might just be a story that was repeated many times.

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Glenn Fleishman

@MacBalance @grammargirl Never heard that one! @mwichary would have a definitive answer, if there is one. I think it’s one of those post-hoc explanations, like how “posh” allegedly meant “port out, starboard home.” People like to invent plausible stories.